I am not familiar with NZ but hypersensitivity can be a symptom of lyme, might want to take a blood test to rule it out. It sounds like you are taking all of the proper steps to ensure it isn’t physical. I wouldn’t personally continue working him until all physical problems had been ruled out. I always give the horse the benefit of the doubt when behavior disintegrates or unravels to this extent. You also don’t want to compound any issues or make any physical issues worse. Please update us as you get him checked out!
the only thing worse than reading a block of text without paragraphs is a block of tex without punktooashun and bod spelling becouse it makes yer braen work in a way it snot accustomed to and is thereby even more ecsohsting and it puts even more ‘responsibility’ on the reader to decipher what the poster is trying to communicate instead of the onus being on the poster which is unfair presumptuous or even rude with respect to the ops sich I couldn’t wade through another post to try to sleuth what she was trying too say except to add that if a trainer is away 2 weeks that is not what most consider very involved very involved would be supervisor for daily rides and being able to monitor how the horse is being handled on the ground as well so I’ll just stop here and wish her luck
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Agreed on the writing style.
OP what you are communicating with your confused writing style is someone bouncing around from idea to idea, no clue who or what they are trying to communicate, and no systematic approach to anything.
Either that or you are 13. Or both.
In either case you need to be under systematic training and support from a good coach. If the horse is on your own property move to coaches barn. Have coach do training rides and give you several lessons a week.
Also have a full physical exam from a real vet with x-rays as needed, not just a visit from a body worker. Did you do a pre purchase exam?
It doesn’t really matter what horse seemed like when you bought him. Right now you have a situation you can’t fix alone, and there is no magic fix we can give you online that will reverse the situation.
Right now you have too much horse for your skill level, and you need consistent professional help. If that is not available or your parents won’t pay for lessons, consider giving the horse back to the breeder if they will take him in this condition.
If you think like you write (which is generally the case) and you ride this way too, things are going to get worse and worse until you are injured.
Consider cleaning up your writing style to be the first step in thinking coherently about your problem, which is the first step to riding consistently and correctly.
Paragraph breaks, sentence structure, and developing one idea at a time.
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You said you got him for a person that has a good reputation with horses and selling - is it just with TBs? If yes (and you are in NZ) then I have a good guess who it was.
Have you thought of contacting her to talk about this issue and possible reasons for it? She may have good insight and some solutions for you, especially if it is someone that deals only with TBs (whether it’s track TBs or not).
Otherwise I would agree with many others and have the vet out to scope or do a full checkup.
Good luck.
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First off, I do apologise for my writing style i have severe learning disabilities when it comes to writing. i do asure you that everything is much more organised in my head. Ill try and make sure everything is in order this time.
Okay so, my trainer’s mother died in a car crash in england and she had to fly at very short notice over there. She IS VERY INVOLVED.
Here in NZ we do not have barns. There is not a single barn where i live. Everyone keeps them at there own house or someone elses or pony club but definitely not in a similar way to what i have seen of american barns. People here do not have there trainers here every day with them. That is how it is here.
My trainer got back three days ago and i had a lesson with her yesterday. She reckons Danny’s teeth might be causing some discomfort even though they got done December last year and we have for the past week tried to contact our dentist (as we had suspicions before my trainer even brought it up) and he has been unable to get back to us. So we are going to get my trainers dentist out ASAP.
The physio found nothing wrong and Danny is physically great.
I have been doing a lot of work with Danny. He is not ‘to much’ for my skill level. and i have seen immense progress with his response to things he finds spooky. I Haven’t had him rear once since the day i wrote my first post on here and he is improving heaps. Which i have been doing by myself (with supervision). Also in my defence every single ride we have ALWAYS ended on a good note (strong believer in that) and i have NEVER fallen off him when he has reared, bolted, bucked e.t.c neither have i gotten off or stopped riding him because he has been behaving badly and ‘scared’ me.
I will see this through and not sell him. I believe he has a great deal of potential and is a truly great horse.
I am not uneducated or ignorant. His behaviour was just very puzzling as i couldn’t identify a cause. So i just popped on here and explained my situation in case there was something besides the obvious (physical, teeth, bloods e.t.c) that i could do to help sort this out or identify a cause.
As im sure you know, you never stop learning from horses!
I think some of these threads are a little bit like advice columns with people writing in to ask how to solve relationship issues. When most of the information is negative – understandably focused on the problem(s), with sometimes a dramatic writing style – much of the advice seems to be to break up (or see a trainer = see a therapist, for professional hands-on help :D), which is indeed one way to solve the issue! I think the gist tends to be that when one is at one’s wits end (and writing to strangers on the internet about it), it (relationships, horses) doesn’t have to be that hard: some challenge is good, too much is frustrating or heartbreaking or even dangerous.
Anyway, glad to hear that you have a handle on it, puzzling as it is. Hope your trainer is doing ok. IME, when a horse’s behavior has drastically changed (though I haven’t had one go quite as bad as your description, just “off” enough from their usual selves), it was due to some physical issue (one that we thought could have eye-sight issues, because super spooky/looky, but sound, turned out to have corns in his feet. Sometimes it’s not an obvious lameness/soreness. Another eg, horse that suddenly became very reluctant/difficult/dangerous to get to the ring, but once in it, worked fine – turned out to be a shoulder injury. Was never lame and never stopped to a jump. I’m not sure how they figured it out or the extent of the injury as it was not my horse).
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Wait… it’s autumn where you are and about 35 degrees? Was it much warmer 3 months ago when you got him?
How much was he getting exercised then versus now?
If the weather has gotten significantly cooler since you got him and he is getting less exercise I would say this is a case of developing “winter brain.”
Right now my equine is a very reliable fellow, but in the late fall when the temps start to get near freezing he will suddenly decide that… a leaf… a fart… a bucket… are all controlled by the ghosts that I clearly cannot see and that they are going to kill us. This results in spooks, more energy, and general antics you would expect from a 3 year old.
Good luck.
Thank you, for all the advice.
Im not sure if we are talking farenheit or degrees here but it has just hit winter (1st of june) and is about 3-7 degrees at night. I have come to the conclusion (could change though) that it is a lot of things together and not just one thing.
We’ve had some awful storms the past month so i think its the lack of routine as im not riding very routinely only when its either very light rain or sunny and the arena is not flooded, and i have just sat my mid year exams so he was only in light work. Hopefully the weather evens out a bit and not so drastic changes so its not so upsetting to the horses.
I believe he is also having some teeth problems and we have the dentist coming out. Once the dentist is out and we know that there is nothing '‘hurting’ him. I will pick up his work and im hoping (fingers crossed) that also helps.
We are also adjusting his feed and talking with a nutritionist.
We are back to regular lessons now and at the end of this month he will be going to my trainers for just over 2 weeks while im in europe and we have made plans for her to do some serious de spooking as her place is a lot busier then mine.
Thanks for all the advice, i know i brought my problems to the forefront but he is genuinly such a lovely horse that just wants to be your best friend and i think thats what made it so hard for me to see him like this and made me want to reach out to make sure i was doing everything in my power to make sure he is a happy chappy 
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I have a horse who is obnoxious to ride if he got cold last night. Yes, even if he’s perfectly comfortably warm by the time I get to the barn in the late afternoon he is obnoxious. Quite by accident I found a big improvement in his attitude when I blanketed him more heavily than my usual weight for temperature guide.
And may I say your last two posts have been very well organized and written? :yes: Well done, you!
Many horses do change personality / energy level with cold weather. In the summer my mare needs lots of leg,is happy to jog and canter slowly on a loose rein, and is generally an easy ride. In the winter she’s forward-forward-FORWARD!!! , her trot is enormous and it’s all I can do to keep her mind engaged and listening. If I’m not careful, all that energy can/will easily manifest itself as a buck or rear, something I’d never ever see in the summer. So, I would not be surprised if the changing season is a factor for your horse.
But you are describing a very extreme change, so your vet needs to do a thorough workup. Your horse may need bi-annual dentistry, it’s common as they age.
I do think you are doing you and your horse a disservice by categorically ruling out rider influence. That the behavior doesn’t immediately disappear when a more confident rider gets on board doesn’t mean much. Most complex behavior problems require sustained training to resolve (put it this way-- it took several months to develop, so it’s not going to magically disappear, either.
Especially since you are coming back from some time off – our position and core muscle strength degrade pretty quickly and that translates directly to riding flaws. That doesn’t make you a bad person or a bad rider-- you’ll get it back. But this horse is telling you pretty clearly that he’s not the right horse to nurse you through this phase. Can you find an older, steady-eddie type horse that you could ride regularly-- one that won’t take offense as you can work on your fitness and riding form? :lol: And do lots of exercise out of the saddle, too.
COTH is not an easy place to debate – I know it’s impossible not to feel defensive when it feels like people are calling you a bad rider. No one has seen the horse, or how you ride – it’s just that most of us have been around horses long enough to know that very few horse behavior problems are exclusively a horse problem. So I’m just saying to keep your mind open to how you can change to meet this particular horse’s needs.
Good luck with your project!
if not lyme… i will bet you money it is kissing spine or improper saddle-fit. they will act up with or without a saddle because it hurts.
the progressive behavioral degradation is textbook. anytime you have a slowly unraveling horse, it’s physical.
jingles for an easy fix.
Sorry for the misunderstanding, i haven’t ruled out rider influence. I knew that would be a huge component but i wanted alternative opinions and i knew that everyone would just point to the rider (fair enough!) i just felt that it was something more then just rider influence though and something wasn’t adding up. So i come on here.
He is well within in my riding capabilities as i said ive never fallen off or had to bail. Ive been able to handle everything its just drains the fun out of it when i am continuously having to bring down such explosive behaviour. But i am willing to push through as i know thats what needs to be done
He has had a full body check and a revisit from the saddle fitter and no issues were found.
